Memorial

By Christopher Isherwood

Book Overview

Set in the aftermath of World War I, Christopher Isherwood's The Memorial is the witty, almost forensic portrayal of the dissolution of a tradition-bound English family. On the cusp of adulthood, the Cambridge student Eric Vernon finds himself torn between his desire to emulate his heroic father, who led a life of quiet sacrifice before dying in the war, and his envy of his father's roguish friend who survived the war and afterward threw himself into gay life. Published in 1932, when Isherwood was twenty-eight years old, The Memorial is the novel in which a dazzlingly talented young writer found his literary voice, the book in which Isherwood became Isherwood.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374533466
• ISBN13: 9780374533465
• Release Date: June 2013
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Not all that memorable....

This is admittedly only the second Isherwood novel I have read...and the first half sets up what I thought was going to be a really good finish...but I was a bit disappointed. Regarding the various relationships of several members of a family, and a few outsiders, there is really one one thread that comes through as a focal point or 'main' story, and that is of the relationship between the character of 'Eric' and his cousin 'Maurice', as well as the involvement of Maurice and Edward, an older man in the habit of making life more cushy for Maurice, much to Eric's disdain. Citing moral corruption and the decline of character of his cousin, Eric strives to barr Edward from continuing his support of Maurice with an appeal to the man's better judgement. Again, this book has a lot of potential, but it just didn't move me the way The World in the Evening did. I give it four stars for Isherwood's writing style, but cannot give an additional mark for content.